


Winter Stories

by holdyourbreathfornow



Category: Steven Universe - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, IDK if this is violent or not???, Like Change Your Mind, Someone stop me before I hurt Steven more, There is a removal of gem though, There’s no blood?, no beta we die like NBs, uhhhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-25 02:58:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21349129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holdyourbreathfornow/pseuds/holdyourbreathfornow
Summary: What if Three Gems and a Baby came after Change Your Mind?Steven probably has PTSD.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Lapis Lazuli & Steven Universe, Steven Universe & Amethyst, Steven Universe & Bismuth, Steven Universe & Garnet, Steven Universe & Greg Universe, Steven Universe & Pearl, Steven Universe & Peridot
Comments: 14
Kudos: 129





	Winter Stories

For a city on the coast, Beach City has harsh winters. Since it usually feels like summer year around, the residents of the sea-side town have learned how to make quick wardrobe changes when the weather shifts unexpectedly.

Connie hasn’t exactly mastered that art, which is why she pulls Steven’s pink faux letterman closer around her. The wind is howling outside and Steven’s not confident enough in his driving to make the trip, so she’s happily spending the night.

Mr. Universe has also set up camp in the temple for the night, and he’s absently plucking at his acoustic as he talks with the Gems. Steven’s attention is held captive by the snow, and those familiar stars are twinkling in his eyes as he watches flurries dance across the staircase.

“It’s been forever since it snowed here!”

“I will admit I have not seen the frozen water falling from the sky in all my time here.” Peridot pipes up from where she’s examining the fireplace. Bismuth rolls her eyes and plucks Peridot away before the flames can harm her.

“Well, since I missed five thousand years, I can’t actually really remember the last snow storm.”

“Oh, I remember the last one.” Pearl says fondly as she makes tea, and Garnet hums in agreement as she seals the gap under the door with a towel so no heat will escape. “Greg, do you remember?”

“How could I forget?” The older man laughs and Steven sits up a little straighter next to Connie, who leans into his side. “Shtu-ball here was only, what, three months old?”

“Dad, you know the rules with stories!” The boy grins and Greg sighs with fake exasperation, even as he positions his fingers on his guitar.

“Luckily I already have a song for this one.” As the sounds of his guitar and quiet singing fill the house, Steven settles back into the couch, wrapping an arm around Connie’s waist and letting her rest her head on his shoulder. Peridot, Lapis, and Bismuth share a blanket and Amethyst gnaws on an empty mug while Pearl distributes the full ones and Garnet sits on the floor, leaning back against the couch.

“Vidalia was letting you and I live in her house, since a van isn’t the best place for a baby. I wasn’t really… Prepared to be a dad, but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything in the world.”

“I bet Steven was a cute kid.” Bismuth mutters and Greg laughs.

“He was. Super strong, too. Used to wriggle out of my arms and just hang from my hair.” 

“Same.” Amethyst pipes up and Greg snorts. 

“Well, the storm was coming down harder than ever, and I fell asleep on the couch, with Steven on my chest. He used to fuss, you know. Almost like he was trying to talk. And he absolutely refused to wear his onesie buttoned all the way shut. He’d pull the buttons open, but just around his gem. I guess he had to let it breathe or something.”

“Well, gems do get their energy from light. Knowing what we do, I wouldn’t be surprised if Steven needed constant exposure to light, in order to have enough energy to function.”

“Science.” Steven whispered to Connie, who stifled her giggles behind her hand.

“Anyway.” Greg easily changes the subject and picks his song up from where he left off. “So we’re asleep and suddenly the door bursts open and standing in the doorway are the Crystal Gems. Carrying gifts, no less.”

“And boy, were they gifts.” Amethyst snorts and Pearl shushes her, though she’s grinning as well.

“Mine was the best.” Garnet tells Steven, who nods solemnly in agreement.

“Garnet gave you a razor.” Greg informs his son, who looks shocked.

“I was a baby!”

“I don’t think I knew just how fragile you were yet.” Garnet chuckles. “Amethyst gave you adult diapers.”

“Guilty.”

“I actually donated them to an old folks’ home in Empire City.”

“You still have my gift to you on your bookshelf.” Pearl tells him and Connie nudges Steven, whose eyebrows furrow in thought. Then he starts laughing.

“That old dictionary?”

“Yes. I thought you could use it to learn to speak.”

“Wow.” Lapis mutters. “You three really knew nothing about gifts.”

“That’s just because they didn’t have me there!” Peridot claims. “I would have made baby Steven the best meep morp ever!”

“Yes, because giving a baby a hunk of metal is a good idea.” Greg interrupts and Bismuth winces. 

“Good thing I wasn’t there, then. I probably would’ve given him a sword.”

“I really don’t need that image.” Greg sighs and Steven chuckles. “But you didn’t really need any of those gifts when you were a baby. I told the Gems maybe they could use Pearl’s dictionary to look up what a baby is, and then I showed them that the thing you liked the most was an old set of keys I had.”

“And for a moment everything was good.” Pearl smiled and Amethyst nodded along before she spoke up.

“But then your gem started glowing.”

“Really?” Steven asks and Greg nods.

“I thought maybe you had a fever or something. The Gems got a little more… Hysterical.”

“We thought it was Rose, trying to get out of you.” Bismuth breaks into wheezing laughter, covering her face with one large hand.

“Of course you did!” 

But Connie notices that Steven isn’t laughing. He looks almost contemplative. She nudges him and he leans a little further onto her.

“Almost like the Diamonds.” He tells her, quiet enough that she can hear. She squeezes his hand soothingly.

“These are the Gems, Steven. They’re not the Diamonds.” He sighs and nods.

“So what happened next?”

“Well, I went to the kitchen to get a parenting book Vidalia had. And when I came back out, the Gems had run off, with you in tow.”

“You kidnapped me?” Steven asks, shocked, and Connie winces. There are a lot of parallels to draw between the story Greg and the Gems are telling, and Steven’s own experience with the Diamonds. Both groups too busy expecting him to magically turn into his mother to notice him, caught between their expectations and the reality of the situation.

“We made a lot of bad decisions in the beginning.” Garnet says and Pearl nods, the trio of original Crystal Gems seeming a little more solemn. But then Greg picks the story back up.

“So I wrapped myself up in a blanket and take off running after them, because not only had they taken you, they also took my van.”

“And so Pearl was driving while Amethyst and I were in the back with you.” Garnet picks up the story. “I thought you were a fusion, stuck together and unable to defuse. So I defused to show you how.”

“You started crying.” Amethyst recalls. “Ruby and Sapphire looked so upset.”

“Oh no, I’m sorry!” Steven looks worried, but Garnet grins and pats at his leg.

“You were a baby. You didn’t know what a Gem was, let alone a fusion. It’s okay.”

“And I thought you got stuck shapeshifting, so I turned into a baby and made Garnet hold me.” Amethyst laughs and Garnet smiles a little wider. “I couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t shapeshift back.”

“I’m glad we didn’t go through with my idea.” Pearl says and the attention in the room shifts to her, the smiles sliding off of Garnet and Amethyst’s faces.

“What was it, Pearl?” Steven asks quietly and she laughs dryly, sourly. 

“I wanted to pull your Gem out of your stomach.”

There are quiet gasps throughout the room, and Steven flinches like he’d been punched. Connie pulls him into her side, carefully avoiding touching anywhere near Steven’s stomach.

After they had returned from Homeworld, Steven had had good days and bad days. And since Connie was the only one who knew what had happened to him in White’s head, he had gone to her. There had been days when he couldn’t be around the Gems, and he camped out in Connie’s room, his shirt tied up under his ribs so he could touch his gem when he needed to. He had never told the Gems, had never felt like he needed to.

Maybe that was a mistake.

“...Did you?” He asks quietly and Pearl blinks, before looking upset. 

“No, of course not! No one knows what would’ve happened if I had done that!”

“I do.” Steven pulls away from Connie, though he keeps their fingers linked together.

“What are you talking about?” Greg asks finally and Steven stands, walking over to the coat rack, fixated on it and starting to zone out of everything else.

“Steven, you need to think about this.” Connie tells him and he pauses from where he’s tugging the hoodie he was wearing off and hanging it up. “This isn’t how you want to do this.”

“They were all right.” Steven tells her, walking back across the room to Connie, standing in front of her in his T-shirt. “I am a fusion. I can shapeshift. And…” He doesn’t mention Pearl’s idea, but he does set a hand over his stomach.

“Steven…” Garnet stands and starts walking towards them. Steven grabs the hem of his shirt and lifts it up to where his Gem is on full view. “Steven, what are you doing?”

“You have future vision, Garnet.” He grips the edges of his Gem. Connie leaps to her feet and starts running to Steven. “You tell me.” 

Suddenly his Gem is on the floor and Steven is stumbling half a step backwards, the only thing keeping him from falling are Connie’s arms under his as she easily hauls him into her arms.

“Steven!” Greg drops his guitar onto the couch next to him and stands, but everyone in the room is arrested when the Diamond on the floor starts glowing and lifts off the ground. A pink mannequin spills out from it. In White Diamond’s head, the mannequin had cycled through Pink’s and Rose’s forms before settling on Steven’s, but this time it immediately takes Steven’s form.

Pink Steven touches down on the ground, identical to Steven in everything except color. He slowly looks around at everyone else in the room before walking over to Connie and Steven, helping her lower his human half onto the couch.

“Do you want to say hi?” Steven asks, bags already starting to form under his eyes and Pink Steven blinks back at him before he speaks, quiet and almost… Shy.

“Hello.”

“Not to me.” Steven laughs, though it quickly dissolves into a coughing fit. Pink Steven grins, though he looks a little worried for his human counterpart. “Be serious.”

“I will try.” Pink Steven promises, before turning to face the others. He almost balks at the fact they’re all staring at him, but squares his shoulders. “H… Hello.”

“Hello, Pink.” Pearl says quietly and the Diamond wrinkles his nose at that.

“That is not my name. I am not her anymore.” He looks back at Steven, who’s leaning on Connie’s shoulder and watching him with half-open eyes. “She’s gone.”

“What would you like to be called?” Garnet asks and Pink Steven hesitates, rocking back and forth on his heels. 

“Call me… Half. Because I’m not my own person.” He turns back to Steven and walks over to him, crouching down to be on his level. “I’m only half of a whole.”

“You and me both.” Steven laughs and Half grins. He looks to Connie, who nods in approval, before scooping Steven up into his arms. Steven laughs and Pink copies the sound, hopping into the air and spinning around as the two of them start to glow with that same bright white light. 

When it fades, Steven’s standing there, his arms wrapped around himself in a hug. Connie leaps at him in a hug and he laughs as he catches her. He stops laughing when she punches him in the arm, however.

“Ow!” He whines and shifts Connie to one arm as he uses the other to rub where she hit him. “What was that for?”

“For defusing, you moron! Just to prove something?”

“To prove that I’m me.” He looks away from Connie and makes eye contact with the Gems and his dad. “I’ve always been me. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Of course you have.” Pearl tells him and walks closer. “We’re sorry for ever doubting that.”

“I’m proud of you, kiddo.” Greg tells him and ruffles Steven’s hair. Amethyst punches him in the arm much harder than Connie did, but he doesn’t even flinch. 

“Ch-yeah, dude! It doesn’t matter what we want you to be. It just matters what you want to be!”

“You are your own person.” Garnet tells him, taking her visor off with one hand and setting the other on his shoulder. “No matter how many parts of you there are.”

And as they all settle back down around the fire, Steven smiles and a white butterfly hiding on the ceiling fades away, joining the snowstorm outside, which has already begun to die down. 


End file.
